This Buckeye team is not very inspiring. Yeah they can D up but they seem too driven by Sully's mood and effort. The guy is obviously going to be doubled teamed as often as possible, but he still comes and goes too much. Buford is over rated. Obviously they're not very deep either.

Yeah their shots didn't fall last night but that game should have still been controlled by them, not scum.

IMO we shouldn't get our hopes up for a special run in the tourney.

Criminals in this town used to believe in things...honor, respect."I heard your dog is sick, so bought you this shovel"

Senate & People of Rome, Thad's "offense" further magnifies the pain as we are reduced to relying on the outside shot way too early and way too often. Which of course means when the Bucks are hitting we can blow anyone out.......cold....Sully gets his double double and we lose.

We are as talented as anyone, but we will need to get hot at tourney time. We are 6-10, a second seed.

I'll say this and then duck from what I'm sure will be plenty of verbal retribution:

they're fucking soft.

That's a finesse team out there, including everyone's All American. Craft is a red-ass but you need your bad ass to be bigger than 6'1, 175lbs.

They better find some balls. I don't get the impression that Matta shapes men and attitudes so much as recruits great talent and does a terrific job getting them to perform cohesively. But he's got no thumpers and no hard asses out there that I see.

You're absolutely right Peeks. The Mighigan State game just hammered home that point. They spent the entire game bitching while MSU was busy playing MSU basketball and bullying the shit out of them. Regardless of how you think the refs are calling the game, there comes a point when you have to adjust. They're calling hand checks and reach ins from 25 feet but allowing murder in the paint. So, stop fucking hand checking and reaching in and go grab, pull and bang in the paint like they are. Somehow, they never figured it out.

And to your point CDT, I don't understand why Amir Williams isn't getting some time as a shot blocking presence. Sully doesn't have that in his game, and Ravenel surely doesn't either. And that brings me to everybody's biggest gripe about Matta. Play the damn bench. I'm tired of watching Buford shoot 2-33 or Sully have 10 turnovers and give up on D because he's frustrated or Ravenel do whatever the hell he does, while multiple McD AA's sit on the bench awaiting their transfer.

Fat Sullinger? Dude lost a ton of weight during the offseason and a lot of people think that's working against him this year because he's not as much of a force down low. I don't think it's fair to say he's overrated when he's getting double and tripled pretty much every game, all game long.

The team just needs Buford, Smith Jr. and Craft to have a decent game on the perimeter to win. In both of the recent losses those three guards were terrible, they combined to shoot 6/23 against Michigan State (26%) and just 5/21 against Michigan (24%). If they got that up to even 40%, OSU wins both of those games.

Couldn't agree more with Peeks that this team is soft. They play defense without fouling, which is fine in theory...but sometimes you have to break out the "no layups" rule to get the game under control psychologically. I was screaming for it in that Purdue defensive debacle recently. Same against MSU....very little mean streak or intimidation factor.

I've also never seen a team that blows more chances to finish at the rim. It's not just Buford, who can go through awful streaks trying to finish, but Craft, Scott, Sully too have problems with it. Thomas among the best.

"I believe it is the nature of the human species to reject what is true but unpleasant and to embrace what is obviously false but comforting." H.L. Mencken

e0y2e3 wrote:Sullinger... SMH.... go LOST twice on D in the final minute and a half and gave up five easy points.

Thank you. This is the point that nobody seems to be brining up. Absolutely terrible defense. Compounding matters on the last three, Buford lazily came over to "help" and helped give up the wide open three.

They read the headlines after thumping Duke and started to believe the hype. They don't get the talent off the bench involved, they can't get any better. 2 guys played 60 minutes and managed 3 shots.....

Just not a good team. Chemistry is a huge issue. Effort seems to be an even bigger issue, but the complete lack of scorers is really killing this team.

Craft is not a scorer.Sullinger isn't able to score out of the doubles and no one on the team can hit a shot when he passes out of the doubles.Thomas is the best overall scorer on the team, but he is a gigantic defensive liability.Smith is a nice player (that cannot score)Buford is the most inconsistent player I have ever seen. He is the Rob Deer of NCAABB, homework or strikeout.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

furls wrote:Just not a good team. Chemistry is a huge issue. Effort seems to be an even bigger issue, but the complete lack of scorers is really killing this team.

Craft is not a scorer.Sullinger isn't able to score out of the doubles and no one on the team can hit a shot when he passes out of the doubles.Thomas is the best overall scorer on the team, but he is a gigantic defensive liability.Smith is a nice player (that cannot score)Buford is the most inconsistent player I have ever seen. He is the Rob Deer of NCAABB, homework or strikeout.

And a defensive team couldn't hold several leads down the stretch. Sullinger was the biggest culprit (those five points were KILLER), but christ on a stick that was bad. I can handle the Taylor shots on craft, as they were ridiculous, but the rest of it was just bad.

No defensive balls. Horrid "O" scheme or lack of relying way too much on the outside shot. Sulli gets a couple early fouls we are toast.Opponents have a couple "stud" Bigs to neutralize Sulli we are toast. JB is right, we are cruising for a second round defeat unless we catch on fire.

Buckeyes played pretty well last night, and they get scUM today at 4:05. I think they can handle the weasels and set up a rematch with Sparty.

I think the Buckeyes are a better team than Sparty as long as they are not flat. Something is/was wrong with the chemistry on this team, hopefully it has been resolved. It seemed like it in the second half against MSU last week and last night. This is a talented team, not a great scoring team, but talented and if they are hitting on all 4 cylinders (sullinger, thomas, buford and craft) they could do well in the tourney.

We shall see I suppose. I am hoping for a UConn like run from last year.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

Team has been hitting on all cylinders since falling behind to MSU last week. They look a lot like the team that beat Duke by 20 and played Kansas pretty tough without Sullinger.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

Gus made some great points about B1G officiating and how physical they let the league play. That will hurt the Bucks in the tourney, they will be in foul trouble continuously. I hadn't even thought about it, but it is true and will definitely impact the team next week.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

The officiating in this game is awful. I am not butt-hurt about tOSU not getting calls or MSU getting to many or whatever. The inconsistency is terrible and at times this game is looking a lot like a football game. I think the refs have screwed up nearly every close call at least it appears as if their fuck ups are basically evenly affecting both teams.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

furls wrote:Gus made some great points about B1G officiating and how physical they let the league play. That will hurt the Bucks in the tourney, they will be in foul trouble continuously. I hadn't even thought about it, but it is true and will definitely impact the team next week.

Call me crazy, but these soft bastards should be as happy as anyone to get games called tighter. Nobody touch Jared Rules are their best chances.

furls wrote:Gus made some great points about B1G officiating and how physical they let the league play. That will hurt the Bucks in the tourney, they will be in foul trouble continuously. I hadn't even thought about it, but it is true and will definitely impact the team next week.

Call me crazy, but these soft bastards should be as happy as anyone to get games called tighter. Nobody touch Jared Rules are their best chances.

I agree with this. Games getting called tigher will help the Buckeyes more than it will hurt them because Sully will be allowed to play his game in the post and won't get frustrated like he does against every Big Ten team with a big man that can walk and chew gum.

On the flip side, if Craft's reputation doesn't save him from some of those strip fouls, then the Bucks are in trouble. Can't have Scott in there in crunch time.

furls wrote:Gus made some great points about B1G officiating and how physical they let the league play. That will hurt the Bucks in the tourney, they will be in foul trouble continuously. I hadn't even thought about it, but it is true and will definitely impact the team next week.

Call me crazy, but these soft bastards should be as happy as anyone to get games called tighter. Nobody touch Jared Rules are their best chances.

I agree with this. Games getting called tigher will help the Buckeyes more than it will hurt them because Sully will be allowed to play his game in the post and won't get frustrated like he does against every Big Ten team with a big man that can walk and chew gum.

On the flip side, if Craft's reputation doesn't save him from some of those strip fouls, then the Bucks are in trouble. Can't have Scott in there in crunch time.

I think (maybe hope is a better word) Craft understands the difference.